From: posting-system@google.com Sent: Sunday, January 20, 2002 3:35 PM To: brian@holtz.org Subject: Re: Are irrational numbers supernatural? Follow Up Flag: Follow up Flag Status: Completed From: brian@holtz.org (Brian Holtz) Newsgroups: alt.atheism.moderated Subject: Re: Are irrational numbers supernatural? References: <3c2fdf06.0@mercury.planet.net.au> <200201070852.AAA19494@lsil.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: 12.236.1.8 Message-ID: <29c16047.0201201535.6eeeed65@posting.google.com> "Paul Filseth" wrote > It seems to > me the scope of the natural universe is real physical things, not > abstractions like numbers -- rational or otherwise. > [..] > mathematical concepts [..] exist in math > space, not in our universe, so to speak. I would counsel against a definition of "universe" that doesn't include everything that exists. Such a notion would create a need for a new name for the set of all things that exist, whether "in our universe" and "in math space" and in any other places in which things can exist. In place of Platonism/Realism, I would consel Conceptualism: mathematical concepts and other such universals do not exist independently of the instances that instantiate them and the minds that conceptualize them. -- brian@holtz.org http://humanknowledge.net